Tethered aerial top



May 2U, 169 L. J. SAYEGH 3,444,644

TETHERED AERIAL TOP Filed July 26. 1966 FIG I INVEN LAWRENCE JO SAYEGHATTORNEY United States Patent 3,444,644 TETHERED AERIAL TOP LawrenceJoseph Sayegh, One Sunset Ave., Cumberland, RI. 02864 Filed July 26,1966, Ser. No. 567,909 Int. Cl. A63h 1/30 U.S. CI. 46-61 4 ClaimsABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A return top construction comprising twosimilar disc members, each disc member having a hub with a tapered axialopening, and an axial member having oppositely located truncated conesand a central circumferential slot, whereby, said two disc members arefastened, respectively, upon said oppositely located truncated cones inspaced relation about said central circumferential slot.

This invention relates to toys and more particularly to a stringedspinning toy commonly referred to as a return top or Yo-Yo.

In the past, such toys were very often made of wood and/or metal,however, recently, there has been an increase in the use of plastic forsuch return tops. The tops, which are composed of two discs joined by acenter peg as an axle have had these pegs made of metal or wood. Thepresent invention is primarily concerned with an improved topconstruction having two plastic discs joined by a center wooden peg.

A principal object of the present invention is to provide an improvedreturn top construction wherein the two discs of the top are joined to awooden peg axle by mechanical means, removing the necessity for glue orsolvents to make such a fastening.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improvedreturn top construction in which the central wooden peg axle acts as aspacer to fix the relative positions of the two discs.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the followingdescription of a preferred embodiment and the annexed drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a complete return top ready for use.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is an elevational side detail view of the peg axle used in mynovel return top construction.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of the present novel return top with acover panel removed to show the interior of one of the two discs of thereturn top.

Referring in greater particularity to the drawing, generally indicates,the novel return top. The top basically includes two plastic discs 12and 14 joined by a wooden peg axle 16.

Each disc has a hub at its center, e.g. 13 in 12 and 15 in 14 and aretaining outer lip; 21 on 12 and 23 on 14, which contains and retains aconvex shaped cover plate, e.g. 25 in 21 and 27 in 23. In addition, eachdisc has a central uniform opening through its hub. This is indicated by30 in disc 12 and 32 in disc 14. Each opening has sidewalls which taperinwardly from the central slot between 3,444,644 Patented May 20, 1969 PCC the two discs 12 and 14 toward the cover plates 25 and 27. This isindicated by sidewalls 31 in opening 30 and sidewalls 33 in opening 32.In addition, the sidewalls 31 and 33 have inwardly directed equallyspaced teeth such as are indicated by 35 in FIGS. 4 and 5.

Since the discs are preferably made of plastic they normally might beconsidered too light to provide sufiicient inertia for acceptableaction. Accordingly, a plurality of uniform cylindrical slugs areintegrally formed in each disc about its hub and located so as to beconcealed by the disc cover plates. Such slugs are indicated in FIG. 5by the numerals 36a, b, c, d, e and 1. These slugs provide additionalproperly distributed weight to supply the necessary inertia.

The two disks 12 and 14 are held in fixed spaced relation to each otherto form a slot 20, by means of a substantially barrel shaped peg 16. Thepeg has a central circumferential slot 40 substantially equal in widthto slot 20. This slot causes the peg to have a central cylindricalnecked down portion 42. Joined to this necked down portion are two equaltruncated conical members 44 and 46 at their respective broad bases 47and 49. From its base each member 44 and 46 tapers inwardly, terminatingat an enlarged circular lip; 50 on 44 and 52 on 46. The smoothlytapering surfaces are indicated by 54 on 44 and 56 on 46. The taper ofsurface 54 corresponds to the taper of sidewall 31, and the taper ofsurface 56 corresponds to the taper of sidewall 33. Preferably, lips 50and 52 correspond in diameter to the bases 47 and 49.

To assemble the return top the discs 12 and 14 are placed with thelarger parts of openings 30 and 32 in contact with the lips 50 and 52and then pressed over the lips until the discs are snapped over the lipsplacing the tapering sidewalls of the openings in contact with thetapering surfaces of the peg, and so that the teeth 35 dig into thetapering surfaces. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, the sidewall 31 isin contact with surface 54 and sidewall 33 is in contact with surface56. Both surfaces 54 and 56 have teeth 35 embedded in them. The coverplates 25 and 27 are then cemented into place respectively withretaining lips 21 and 23. The string, indicated here as 60, is thenplaced in slot 40. The top is then ready for use.

I claim:

1. A return top construction comprising two similar disc members infacing, spaced relation joined by a centrally located axle member,

(a) said axle member including a central circumferential slot separatingtwo similar end members substantially shaped as truncated cones andhaving facing base portions, each said end member including (I) asurface tapering inwardly from its base portion toward its outer end,terminating at said outer end in an enlarged circumferential lip nogreater in diameter than its said base,

(b) each disc member containing two substantially parallel walls (I) oneof said walls being fiat,

(II) the other of said walls having an outwardly extending centrallylocated hub with an outer end,

(III) said hub having an interior opening extending from said fiat discwall to its outer end,

(IV) said opening being defined by smoothly tapering sidewalls extendingfrom said fiat disc wall to said hub outer end,

(c) each said disc member being mounted on an axle member with thetapering sidewalls of the central opening of each disc membercorresponding to the tapering surface of its respective end member,

(I) the enlarged circumferential lip of each end member engaging saidouter end of its respective disc member hub and retaining said hub inplace on said axle member,

(II) means for preventing rotation of each said disc member with respectto said axle,

(d) said two disc members being spaced on said axle with the flat wallsof said disc members being in spaced relation to form a slotcorresponding in width and orientation to said central slot in said axlemember.

2. A return top construction as called for in claim 1 wherein said axlemember is made of wood.

3. A return top construction as called for in claim 2 wherein said meansfor preventing rotation of each said disc member with respect to saidaxle are a plurality of teeth extending inwardly from the taperingsidewalls of each said disc opening and embedded into said axle.

4. A return top construction as called for in claim 3 wherein each discmember has a cover member joined to it to conceal its hub.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1965 Stivers 466l 6/1966Radovan 46-61

